Started on the dashboard today. This is the first cut from the sheet. These massive snips were given to me by my mother-in-law. Her husband used to work for Union Pacific railroad company as a mechanic. These snips used to be used to fix locomotives. That's cool.



These big snips actually can make quite delicate cuts. I used the scissors only for the curved cuts.



Comparison to the original dash:



Cleaned up the edges with a belt sander.



Taped the old dash to the new dash and then drilled the holes for the steering wheel and shift lever. Also punched and drilled holes for the aluminum dash to attach to the original dash.



Tacked down the ends of the dash to a piece of 2x4 timber so I could have a stable platform for damascening.



Set up the jig in the mill and started on the damascening.



Two hours and ten minutes later, not including set-up time, it looked like this. Approximately 600 swirls.





I removed the decal from the original dash, exposing the wood laminate. I then glued the new aluminum dash to it, and secured it with 0-80 socket head screws.



Next, I need to make some gauge housing rings, and print some gauge faces. Then install them on the new dash.

BTW, I tested the driveline today and everything holds in place and the oscillations have been damped out. And it sounds wicked!